Would A ‘Mannie’ Tickle Your Fancy?

The Irish Times – Tuesday, March 2, 2010

BRIAN O’CONNELL

With little demand for their services, male nannies are a rare breed in Ireland

BRITNEY SPEARS has one. Mrs Doubtfire was one in disguise. Yet, for Irish society, the male nanny or “mannie” is still not an option for the vast majority of families.

Could rising unemployment go some way towards addressing the obvious gender bias within Irish childcare? Don’t bank on it. It is estimated that as little as 1 per cent of childcare workers in Ireland are male.

Recent child abuse scandals have added to public insecurity about men caring for children in a professional setting. And it’s unlikely this will change in the immediate future.

Of the four main nanny agencies working in Dublin, none of them have male nannies available for hire. Rebekah Lyons, director of Executive Nannies, can recall placing only a handful of male nannies in Irish homes in the past decade, and says there is no increased demand for male au pairs or childminders, despite signs that their services are increasingly sought after in the US.

“Male nannies in Ireland are few and far between,” she says. “We have placed maybe two or three in the last 10 years. These have been very successful placements though, due in large part to the fact that the guys were seriously professional supernannies.”

Lyons says the requests for male nannies came from one family with a special needs child and another family who had two robust boys who they felt would benefit from a male influence.

“In one case it was with a special needs child who was approaching age 10 or 11, so they needed someone who was strong and who could lift the child. A male carer was more suited than a female one,” Lyons explains.

“In another position we had a fairly high-profile family and the parents did a lot of travel. They had two boys, maybe aged eight and 10, and they were real sporty young lads. At the time we had a male nanny on our books and we asked if they wanted to meet him. A lot of families aren’t open to it, but this family said fine. He has been with them for about six years now and it has worked very successfully.”

Susan Dunn, director of the Belgrave Agency, says that last year she had a request for a male nanny but could not locate anyone in Ireland to fill the position.

Eventually, her organisation had to liaise with an overseas agency to fill the post. “We place thousands of nannies every year, in both part-time or temporary work at home and abroad. I was excited when we got the request for a male nanny. But that quickly changed when it took so long to try to fill the post.

“I notice with some foreign clients living here now in Ireland, they say that male nannies are common where they were located before. Ireland doesn’t seem to be ready for it yet.”

While Irish male nannies are hard to come by, for those men working in other areas of the childcare profession, there is an effort under way to have their views and voices heard.

A new organisation called Men in Childcare recently made a DVD to dispel some of the negative stereotyping that exists towards male childcare workers.

Founder member Tim Moran, a childcare worker, says attitudes are changing, but it remains a slow process. Originally from the US, Moran has been working at the Wallaroo Playschool in Cork for eight years.

“I would say that 1-2 per cent of childcare workers in Ireland are male. There are not a lot of men working in childcare in America either though. I think it’s partly because society doesn’t see this as work for men. That is starting to change in that you do need a qualification to do it and it is skilled work.”

With the recent downturn, Moran says there are slightly more men looking to the profession. He says that previously the big concern for families was that male nannies or childcare workers were viewed with suspicion.

“The big thing that is on people’s mind is the possibility that a man could abuse their children. But the fact is that childcare facilities have extensive policies and procedures in place that would prevent any adult from abusing a child.”

Despite this, even Moran himself admits it can still be hard for society to accept male childcare workers. “When people ask me what I do, it doesn’t roll off my tongue to give my profession. It’s not that easy to say I work with kids.”

YOU’VE GOT MALE: WOULD YOU HIRE A MALE NANNY?

Oonagh Montague, living in Kildare, and mother of Theo and Eve: “I think it would be irrelevant if it was a male or female childcare worker. The bottom line is that you have to go on gut instinct. The minute you meet the person – that is what youjudge it on. The vast majority of people, though, would say no to male nannies, and be utterly put off giving it a shot because of everything we have learned about paedophiles and so on.”

Angie Parry, living in Clare, mother of Caoimhe and Conor: “I would have no problem with a male nanny. I think it would also be important for single parents who might like the option if they felt the kids needed a male influence. I just think it’s not the done thing.

Suzanne Lindsay, lives in Dublin, and mother of James and Zara: “I know what I should say, but I have a reluctance against nannies full stop. We have our kids in a creche. A nanny would be cheaper and more cost effective, but I’m not sure. If I interviewed a male nanny I would be more reluctant. That’s because of the whole stereotyping and from hearing cases of abuse on the news. I’m aware that is a complete prejudice. The other side of it is if there was a male worker in the creche I would be delighted.”

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Bremerton Daycare Investigated After Child Is Fed Wrong Breast Milk

By Marietta Nelson

BREMERTON — The Washington Department of Early Learning is investigating a report from a local mom that her son was fed the wrong breast milk while he was being cared for at the Sylvan Way Christian Schools Daycare Center in Bremerton.

On Feb. 16, three-month-old Julien Love was fed a bottle of breast milk that came from another mom. His mom, Ashley, reported that she wasn’t told until the next day, and only then by a teacher who was not involved in the incident. That teacher was concerned that the school had not officially informed her, Love said.

While Love said she has been very concerned about the affect of the different milk on her son, her bigger concern is that school officials did not tell her. “It’s the cover-up that bothers me,” she said. “What else are they lying about?”

Eric Glomstad, senior pastor at Sylvan Way Baptist Church, which is the parent organization of the 30-year-old Sylvan Way schools, said officials there are conducting an internal investigation to determine how the incident occurred. Glomstad said Love was not properly notified and that the director of the daycare has been put on leave until the investigation is finished.

“We’re taking this very seriously,” he said. New procedures and policies for food storage are in place, as are new policies for notifying parents about the safety and activities of their children.

Sylvan Way wants to reassure parents and the community. “We want to provide information to parents in regard to their children to ensure they are safe and to ensure that our concern for the safety of their children is utmost,” Glomstad added.

Sylvan Way Principal Judy Belcher did not comment on the matter on Tuesday. Belcher did confirm that the school’s governing board will meet tonight, but she said the meeting was not convened to discuss this matter.

DEL spokeswoman Amy Blondin confirmed that the department is investigating Love’s complaint. DEL officials are also working with the Sylvan Way center to correct any problems in relation to the storage and preparation of infant food.

More critically, though, they are working with the center to ensure parents are informed when incidents occur, Blondin said. State law specifically directs day care centers to inform “the parent of the child’s progress and issues relating to the child’s care and individual practices concerning the child’s special needs.”

Blondin said the center has until March 24 to submit a report proving that it will comply with state laws. If the report is not submitted by the deadline, the center could face a $250 a day fine until it is submitted.

Blondin said she is confident the center will comply. “I think Sylvan Way understands,” she said, adding that the center has been licensed since 1992 for up to 100 children ages one month to 12 years. “It’s a fairly large facility that has been open a long time,” Blondin said.

Love, however, is still concerned about the treatment of her family and her son.

After visiting several local child care centers, Ashley and her husband, Jesse, chose Sylvan Way for Julien, their first child. The center had a large infant room with lots of nice equipment, Ashley Love said.

“It was already hard to leave him there. I looked at multiple places. As a mother, I thought I picked the best one,” she said. Ashley and Jesse work at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

Julien’s first day was Jan. 25. In the following weeks, her only concern was that he had some spit-up on his face when she picked him up. Ashley Love spoke with a teacher about the issue and it never happened again, she said.

Then on Feb. 17, she received a call from a teacher who informed her that the day before, due to a mix-up, Julien had received another mom’s breast milk.

Ashley became concerned about the other milk. What if the mother was taking prescription or illegal drugs? What if she had a drink of alcohol? Even worse, what if the milk could pass HIV or Hepatitis A to Julien?

“This is bodily fluid. This is not any different from me giving you blood,” Ashley Love said.

In a meeting that day with center officials, Ashley Love demanded to know why she had not been told. The officials, she said, did not have an answer. The Loves took Julien to his pediatrician. He is OK and the Loves are waiting on test results for HIV and Hep A.

The family has asked for a refund of the $692 they prepaid for his care in February and March. They have also asked the school to pay for the costs of the two tests. Jesse and Ashley Love are taking turns staying home with Julien until he begins at his new day care on Monday.

Further, Ashley Love would like to see more stringent state laws in relation to the storage of breast milk at day care centers and in the notification of parents when an incident of any type occurs at a day care center. As a first-time parent, Ashley Love said she’s discovering the gravity of her role.

“As a parent, it’s probably my job now to protect every other child in the world, too,” she said.

Complaints Since 2008

Since 2008, four other reported incidents at Sylvan Way Christian Schools Daycare Center have been validated by the state Department of Early Learning.

In June 2008, there was a problem with running water and heat during construction on a building at the center. Sylvan Way created a plan, under the supervision of the DEL, to ensure the temperatures in the center and of the water were within licensing requirements.

In August of 2008, a caller reported seeing a staff member pick up a 2-year-old boy by the shoulders and sternly place him in a time-out seat. The caller also witnessed the same staff member yelling at the boy and other children. DEL and Sylvan Way created a plan to “ensure appropriate care for children.”

In January of 2009, a caller reported that two children were under the sheets of the nap beds and one child allegedly asked the other to kiss. DEL helped to train staff on “auditory and visual supervision requirements.”

In September of 2009, a caller said children were involved in inappropriate touching during nap time. According to the DEL report, “There was insufficient evidence on whether this occurred, but evidence indicated that the director did not report the suspected incident as required” by state law.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/02/bremerton-child-care-center-investigated-after/#ixzz0hYiDlVLF

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Grandparents Risk Hardship By Taking On Childcare

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 March 2010 17.08 GMT

Many grandparents risk hardship through loss of pay to help their family with childcare. Photograph: Heinrich van den Berg/Getty Images/Gallo Images

Grandparents in some of the UK’s most vulnerable families are risking hardship by taking time out of work to provide free childcare, a report claimed today.

Research commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the charity Grandparents Plus found that working-class grandmothers of working age on low incomes were more likely to have given up work or reduced their hours to care for grandchildren than those in wealthier families.

Working-class women were more likely to be young grandmothers, defined as under 50-years-old, than middle-class women, while their younger relatives were less likely to be able to afford formal childcare arrangements.

Giving up their own jobs to plug the childcare gap had a big impact on grandmothers’ income – nearly two-thirds of grandmothers who had given up work or reduced their hours to care for their grandchildren were managing on a very low household income.

The report showed that while across demographic groups, one in three families rely on grandparents to provide some kind of childcare on a weekly basis, among single-parent families that figure rises to between half and two-thirds. Children of these families are nearly twice as likely to experience economic hardship than the wider population.

It said more than half of families with a disabled child live in poverty or are in danger of sinking into it, and that grandparents in these families play a considerable role in providing emotional, practical and financial support, particularly during times of crisis.

It also found that ethnic minority households are most likely to have a grandparent, child and grandchild all living under the same roof, which it said often led to the expectation that grandparents would take on high levels of childcare.

The report, Protect, Support, Provide, was based on new data from the British Social Attitudes survey, together with a review of literature on the role of grandparents role in society.

The researchers said historically the contribution grandparents made to their grandchildren’s lives had been “underestimated and under-recorded”, but it was known that it varied widely from occasional childcare support through to substantial periods of regular childcare to enable parents to return to work.

They added: “The cosy (stereotypical) image of the benevolent, middle-class grandparent with the resources and time to ’spoil’ their grandchildren is familiar for some but it does not reflect the reality for many.”

The groups behind the report said the government’s aims of increasing the numbers of lone parents in work and increasing the employment rate of older people as they approach retirement were working in conflict with each other.

Kay Carberry, commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “The contribution of grandparents cannot be ignored. Without the free childcare they give, many parents would not be able to work. This is particularly important in low income families that may find it difficult to pay for childcare.”

Sam Smethers, chief executive of Grandparents Plus, said: “Until very recently we’ve seen a failure to consider the importance of grandparents in family life. This has made them invisible to government, so it’s not surprising that targets on child poverty and older people’s poverty are working against each other.

“It’s time the government recognized that grandparents provide the last line of defense between millions of children and that poverty line. They need recognition and better emotional, financial and practical support.”

To make life easier for grandparents, the groups are calling on the government to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees and to abolish the default retirement age.

They also want to work with Jobcentre Plus advisers to accommodate the needs of the wider family and ensure the forthcoming Child Poverty Commission considers the role of grandparents in their work.

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Korean Unmarried Mothers Coming Out Of Isolation

During her college years, Chang Ji-young once dreamed of becoming an unmarried mom voluntarily in protest against the unfair prejudice towards them here.

However, two years ago, when the 34-year-old former business consultant became pregnant by her former boyfriend, she first considered getting married to him.

“Facing the reality was totally different from vaguely assuming it,” said Chang, who is currently raising her daughter alone after her boyfriend didn’t keep the marriage promise.

Her parents and brother tried to persuade her to get an abortion or to give up the baby for adoption. But she resisted and her family turned their backs on her and the child.

Until then, she was confident about the future because she had 10 years of overseas working experiences as well as fluency in English.

“I felt frustrated most when my expectations were shattered,” she said.

“During a job interview, they asked why I raise the child alone and who the father is. In Korean society, it’s impossible to avoid such questions, even though they are extremely private matters. Then, all I got was rejections.”

Chang is one of the Korean unwed moms who must endure a lifetime of poverty and disgrace after deciding to raise their children alone.

According to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, about 6,000 to 10,000 babies are born out of wedlock every year in Korea.

They accounted for 1.6 percent of the total births, the lowest level among OECD member states. While Japan has the second lowest 2.1 percent, the figures in the United States and France are 38.5 percent and 50.4 percent, respectively.

Fearing financial and social struggles, 96 percent of unmarried pregnant women have abortions, and of those who choose to give birth, 70 percent give up their children for adoption, the state-run Korean Women’s Development Institute reports.

In the United States, only 1 percent of unwed moms choose adoption, according to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.

“Unmarried pregnant women, desperate to seek help, contact adoption agencies. However, they persuade the mothers to give up their children rather than encourage them to raise the kids. Without knowing what’s going on exactly, they agree for adoption,” said an unwed mom and the director general of the Korean Unwed Mothers and Families Association, who requested not to be named.

Of the total 2,556 babies born to unmarried women and then adopted in 2008, 1,250 found their home abroad, the Health Ministry said. Since 1958, Korea has sent more than 200,000 children abroad.

When it comes to welfare services, Korea still legs far behind other developed countries. Childcare, in particular, is one of the biggest obstacles for working moms, regardless of their being married or not.

However, while married or divorced women receive support from their expanded family members for childcare and other family affairs, such support is absent for unwed moms, making them more vulnerable.

“Unwed mothers come to have less choices. Because the children can be looked after only at nursery school, they have to find a job near the place and can’t work overtime at night,” said the director general of the unwed mothers’ association.

Teenage pregnancy and, more recently, rampant abortions have emerged as serious social problems in Korea. And the issue of supporting unwed moms has just started gaining public attention.

Last year, the government has earmarked a budget of 1.6 billion won ($1.4 million) to provide assistance to unwed moms aged under 24.

However, the mothers and activists point out that the financial assistance should be given for the babies, regardless of their mothers’ age.

When she started a campaign supporting unwed moms three years ago, Kwon Hee-jung, coordinator of the Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network, said she could not meet the mothers anywhere.

“I didn’t know whom I was speaking for,” she said.

Now, however, it’s great for me to see moms work and speak for themselves.”

A growing number of unmarried mothers, mostly those in their 20s and 30s, are deciding to raise their children recently. In 1984, the rate was only 5.8 percent. However, the figure surpassed 30 percent currently, according to the women’s policy institute.

And they started joining forces and speaking out for the rights of unwed moms and their children.

Choi Houng-suk, a 39-year-old hairdresser, is one of them. Along with other three unmarried moms, she opened last year an online community “Miss Momma Mia,” which is aimed at sharing information and brining up the issue of unwed moms to be discussed.

Their campaign was linked to the foundation of the Korean Unwed Mothers and Families Association on Dec. 19. With some 40 members joining currently, the nation’s first association of unwed moms aims to become a non-government organization in March.

“I’m not an activist, just the mother of my son. I am still hesitant to reveal myself in public,” Choi said.

“When the media portrays our problems sensationally, I sometimes want to quit doing this. But I can’t. If I don’t take any action now, the social prejudice will be prolonged, affecting our children finally.”

Fortunately, Choi is one of the rare unwed moms who receive childcare costs from their children’s birth fathers. She had tried not to inform her pregnancy to her former boyfriend. But her doctor said that he also has the right to know.

Even though related laws oblige the fathers to share the rearing expenses, most of them ignore the duty. The average amount reported is less than 500,000 won per month.

Most of all, mothers themselves give up the money, fearing that the fathers could ask for the custody of their children belatedly.

“It is more likely that the fathers who have a better job as well as family support win a lawsuit. However, recently, the court also rules in favor of the mothers who have never abandoned the kids and try to find a stable job. So, the mothers need to seek the financial assistance more aggressively,” Choi said.

In 2008, three years after the birth, her family finally accepted Choi and her son.

“When I became an unwed mom, my family was the first to abandon me. But they finally accepted me. And that support encouraged me a lot more than anything else,” she said.

Adding to the efforts of the unwed moms’ association is the support from Korean-born adoptees who recently returned home to help the mothers who face the same difficulties as their birth mothers did decades ago. They help promote the issue to the public as well as educating and taking care of the kids of unwed mothers.

“There are a lot of campaigns ongoing to promote adoption. They say ‘Bear abandoned children with love.’ However, the mothers had never abandoned the kids. They made an unavoidable decision for the better future of their kids,” Choi said. “We hope adopted people to understand the cruel situations their birth mothers had to face.”

(jylee@heraldm.com)

By Lee Ji-yoon

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Vatican Summit To Acknowledge Child Sex Abuse By Irish Clergy:

…Incidents ‘obsessively’ hidden, report claims.
By PHILIP PULLELLA, Reuters, February 15, 2010

Bishops who are to meet Pope Benedict over a pedophilia scandal that has shaken devoutly Roman Catholic Ireland will acknowledge the “enormous injustice and cruelty” inflicted on the victims, a participant said yesterday.

The meetings, scheduled for today and tomorrow, are to be the first such sessions at the Vatican in eight years. The participants will discuss a plan for action that could lead to more prelates resigning in a shakeup in the Irish church hierarchy. Four have already quit.

The pope, 24 Irish bishops and top Vatican officials are to hold three sessions in response to outrage in Ireland over the Murphy Commission report, a damning indictment of child sex abuse by priests in the country. “This is not just a cosmetic exercise,” Bishop Joseph Duffy, of Clogher, Ireland, told a news conference in Rome yesterday. The bishops would acknowledge “the failure on the part of all of us” to be vigilant against abuse and to express their commitment to try to rectify “the enormous injustice and cruelty” that victims have suffered, Duffy added.

The Vatican said in December that the pope will write to the Irish people about the crisis – the first time a pontiff will have devoted a document solely to the clergy’s abuse of children. “We’re asking for Pope Benedict to restore the honour to Ireland that was so severely damaged by these scandals,” said John Kelly, founder of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse.

The report, published in November, said the church in Ireland had “obsessively” hidden child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004, and operated a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Victims’ groups said they will seek monetary compensation, which could lead to a financial crisis for the church in Ireland.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

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Working Parents Face Child Care Dilemma

By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Taking care of children is tricky when both parents work, but when one parent falls sick, goes on a trip or is out commission for whatever reason, balancing work and child care can be downright daunting for the parent left in charge.

And the weak labor market may put additional pressure on working parents who want to maintain their professional productivity, but are faced with temporary additional child-care responsibilities.

What to do? Call mom! At least, that was my initial plan when recently faced with the prospect of being the only parent watching my five-month-old daughter for a week.

My husband was given just a few days’ notice about a week-long business trip to Japan, meaning that I, too, was given only a few days’ notice about temporarily losing my parenting partner. Mainly I was worried about how I would work all week on little sleep. Dan and I usually split the nightshift, alternating who pacifies or feeds Eve when she wakes up, so we usually both get a good four- to five-hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep. But his trip meant I was looking at a full week of badly interrupted sleep on top of my regular workload and daily chores.

So I figured that Eve and I could flee to my parents’ house. Even if they didn’t help take care of Eve overnight, as least they could watch her during the day while I napped.

But I cancelled the trip to my parents because, frankly, I felt silly about being cowed by the complexity of my own life. And once I had calmed down, I realized that over the last few months Dan, Eve and I have spent substantial time building resources and getting to know other new families in our community, and that we do have a support system in place.

It’s quite a feeling when you realize that the grown-ups aren’t going to come to your rescue because you are, in fact, the grown-up.

Like many other young urbanite families, Dan and I do not live close to our parents, and can’t readily rely on them for babysitting help. We joined a nanny share, thus splitting, with another family, the cost of a nanny who watches the babies during working hours. During the days I will be able to work while the nanny watches Eve, and at night Eve and I are going to make do. There will be time for sleep some other week.

Friends, family

Thinking about my friend Terri, whose nanny share I joined, also helped put my situation in perspective. Terri is a single mom. My week-long tour as a single parent is her everyday life. And not only is Terri a put-together professional, her little boy is one of the pleasantest babies I have ever met, in addition to clearly being extremely well cared for.

So I asked Terri how she juggles work and family life. She said friends are key, pitching in to babysit when Terri needs a nap or some other break.

“I’ve had a great network of friends, who have been incredibly supportive,” Terri said. “I don’t really have that many friends in D.C. with kids. But I have a lot of friends in D.C. who enjoy being around kids, and will at some point have kids. They have helped tremendously.”

Terri works long days, and the nanny — a former health worker and current baby whisperer — is a wonderful help. “To have somebody you feel really safe about watching your kid takes a huge stress off,” Terri said.

Fairness

When both parents work, there isn’t always an obvious division-of-child-care-labor strategy. Families with two working parents may grapple over issues of fairness when it comes to child care, and see the juggle of work and family as a power struggle.

Is it fair for one working parent to take on the majority of child-care responsibilities? Is it fair for one parent to go on frequent business trips, leaving the other working parent to pick up the slack?

My friend Annie and her husband have an eight-month-old boy, and aren’t so much guided by principles of fairness as they are by logistics. Annie works freelance, and her jobs require some travel, while her husband works from home. A babysitter helps during working hours. Still, Annie does feel that mothers end up being the “main person” when it comes to child care.

And so she enjoys her short work trips. “It’s nice to get away and remember what it’s like to not always have to take care of everybody,” Annie said.

Some working spouses lament that their partners shirk duties. There were grumblings from parents in Washington who found themselves suddenly pent up with each other and their kids over several work days during the recent record snowfall. An anonymous post to the online parenting support group dcurbanmom.com detailed one wife’s frustration with her husband:

“[Dear husband] and I both work and both have significant responsibilities in our positions. We both travel from time to time — both have meetings [and] calls with external groups, etc. This snowfall and a recent vacation have brought some longstanding issues to the forefront. His work always (nearly always) comes before mine,” the poster wrote. “Wondering how others deal with this power struggle.”

This elicited a range of sympathetic responses that illustrate the various ways families deal with this issue. Some responses showed a fair amount of resolve: “I’ve learned to protect my time and be firm that when it’s his turn to cover the child care he needs to cancel whatever that day.” Others focused on being equitable: “We split the days. One goes in the morning and comes home and the other goes in the afternoon.” Still others were non-confrontational: “One thing we don’t do is keep count of who does what though because it’s not productive for us.”

Ruth Mantell is a MarketWatch reporter based in Washington.

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Poorest Children A Year Behind By Age 5

Vocabulary tests comparing the poorest fifth of families to those on a middle income showed an ability difference of around 11 months, the Sutton Trust reported.

In the most comprehensive study of its kind, researchers confirmed that children were still being hampered by their backgrounds before they even reached school.

“These findings are at once both shocking and encouraging – revealing the stark educational disadvantage experienced by children from poorer homes before they have even stepped into the school classroom, but also the potential for good parenting to overcome some of the negative impacts that poverty can have on children’s early development.”

The findings showed more than half of those from the poorest fifth of families were not being read to every day at age three, compared just 20 per cent from the richest families.

Nearly half of the poorest group were born to mothers aged under 25, while around two thirds did not live with both biological parents at age five.

Researchers concluded good parenting and a supportive home environment often produced the best test scores.

Professor Jane Waldfogel, who co-led the research, said: “We now have sound evidence about policies and programmes that raise achievement for low income children and help reduce gaps in early childhood.

“We also know that the best of these investments will yield returns well in excess of their costs.”

The research, led by academics at the London School of Economics and Bristol University, was based on 12,500 British five-year-olds in 2006 and 2007.

The trust, which aims to promote social mobility, called for the Government to close the gap via parenting programmes, home visits and outreach projects.

It also suggested more funding nursery education for the poorest 15 per cent of two to four-year-olds.

Baroness Morgan, the Children’s Minister claimed much progress had already been made since the research took place, pointing to a national reading programme, better childcare and more than 3,000 children centres which offer advice for parents.

She said: “But more needs to be done to reach all parents and by 2011 we will be investing over £1 billion a year directly to support services in children’s centres.

“The childcare entitlement means even low income families can benefit from high quality childcare that prepares toddlers for school,” she added.

“Whilst there is much more to do, the gap between rich and poor in early years is closing with the lowest-achieving children not only keeping pace but improving faster than the rest. We will continue to focus extra resources on the most disadvantaged children.”

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Soldier Agrees To Leave Army…

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Gentrification Claims New Victims…

… child care centers.

A city plan to close 10 child-care centers in gentrifying neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn is misguided because it ignores the reality that most people using the facilities do so because they are near their workplaces, not their homes, critics said this week.

Last month, the Bloomberg administration announced major child care cuts, moving to close what the city says are unneeded centers in gentrified neighborhoods such as Park Slope, Cobble Hill and Clinton Hill — but day-care providers say that their customers are anything but well off.

The plan does not consider that people who can’t afford to live in these pricey neighborhoods are often the ones working in them.

“Most of our kids come from other areas with parents who work near us,” said Jerry Chiapetta, the executive director of the Court Street Day Care Center in Cobble Hill, one of the centers slated for the ax. “We’re fulfilling the needs of your typical low-income people.”

Here’s a link to the story.

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Child Care, Chinese Style

At first sight it seems the ultimate in child cruelty – a two-year-old boy chained to a lamp post to stop him getting away.

Yet his parents say this is the only way they can guarantee not to lose him.

His father Chen Chuanliu works as an unlicensed rickshaw cyclist in Beijing, taking fares all over the city, while the boy’s disabled mother collects rubbish at the roadside.

Chained: Two-year-old Chen Chuanliu is regularly padlocked to a tree while his rickshaw driver father touts for customers in Beijing

No escape: The padlock securing the toddler.

 They say they secured their son, Lao Lu, with a padlock around his ankle because his four-year-old sister Ling was ’stolen’ from them last month.

Child snatching is rife in China, where strict laws govern the size of families.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1248252/Chinese-boy-chained-lamp-post-dad.html#ixzz0erwgh9Hk

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